Kojima: LA Noire To "Change The Direction" Of Adventure Games

We're big fans of LA Noire here at Dealspwn - check out our round table review for more on that. But it appears Rockstar's 1940s crime caper has bigger fans than us. Hideo Kojima, the acclaimed director of Snatcher, Zone of the Enders and, above all, Metal Gear Solid, has been praising LA Noire to Next-Gen today, claiming its patented MotionScan tech will "change the direction of adventure games".

"I'm very interested in [LA Noire], and I'm waiting for it to be released in Japanese," reveals Kojima during an interview held at Barcelona's GameLab conference. Surprisingly, however, Kojima has yet to play LA Noire, but he was invited to Team Bondi's studio to witness the facial performance capturing tech, MotionScan, first hand.

"The technology is absolutely fantastic," he said. "This technology, regarding facial expressions - that affect the outcome of the game - I think that's a huge element that from now on will change the direction of adventure games". Kojima is right; LA Noire's rampant success - it held the number one spot in the UK for a fair while, and shifted millions worldwide - will prompt other publishers to consider adapting MotionScan or similar tech in their existing production flow.

However, don't expect Kojima's next title - Zone of the Enders, please! - to feature tense interrogation scenes where you track a suspect's roving eyes or telling tics. "Nevertheless, for the next game I want to make, it isn't necessarily the technology I need," Kojima explains, "so I don't think it goes along with the next game I would like to create".

We'd like to congratulate Kojima on the Lifetime Achievement honor he was awarded with at GameLab, and hope to hear more from him on his next project very soon. [Next-Gen]